Does anyone out there remember PlaNetwork? It was a fabulously geeky conference that had a good run back a few years ago now. I loved its combination of high geekery and values-based idealism. I remember meeting someone through pre-event communications that I collaborated with to build a beaut...

It didn't take long for the guy next to me on the train to ask if I was pretty liberal. He was merely confirming the obvious, as we amicably disagreed on several current lightning rods: health care reform, sustainable energy... Continue reading

Hi Annemarie,
I can't begin to speculate why different folks can or can't be vulnerable - I can barely figure out why I have trouble with vulnerability when I do. But your thoughts seem pretty compelling, especially when you suggest that beneath anger, violence and depression may lie deep wounds that deserve our compassion and love, rather than disgust.
Decades ago I worked in juvenile court and child welfare at the height of the crack cocaine epidemic. I learned the addicted mothers who were losing their kids had experienced traumas in their own childhoods; almost all had be sexually abused and/or were raised by parents with active alcoholism or drug addictions, were neglected, many physically abused. Psychologists found these mothers -- despite their chronological adult age -- had emotional ages of around 8-9 years old. Those facts completely altered my perceptions of the courts and child welfare scene. The judge assumed she was talking to a grown woman about the steps necessary to get her kids back -- get a job, find a stable apartment, stay in treatment. But, in fact, the woman standing before that judge was emotionally as immature as any normal 3rd grader, still confused, battered and longing for the adults to take care of her, for the world to feel safe & make sense.
We are always accountable for our own thoughts, actions, words and decisions. (And I do believe each of us can find ways to soften our own selves, open up to safe vulnerability in ways that feel good.) But before passing judgment on others -- or offering either punishment or help -- it's best if we know where they're coming from.
Thanks. Jeanne

I'm writing a book (and, thus, trying to stay very disciplined on the long-write instead of the short-post-writes) but came upon this great TED presentation (thanks Janet!), perfect for both today's drafting and New Year's intention.

Tonight on HBO, a documentary about Gloria Steinem. And, so, an excuse to post my interview with her (such a cool gift!) for All About Women (For some reason the magazine took offline the first several years of issues.) From... Continue reading

Message to a friend who just showed up in my dream ... life is supposed to feel good, feel blissful in fact, if we actually allow such things. Love, too, but that goes without adding. Even change or growth or... Continue reading

Perhaps it's a sign of success, instead? That the depth, soul and vibration of the conversation suddenly exceeded the existing technological amps? Or the richness of the full community could no longer stay contained within the designed small groups, a weird kind of breaking through the veil?
I'm so sorry I couldn't be on, but eager to access the mp3 or transcript, look forward to the next one, and so grateful for your efforts!

I think I've mentioned that I have a fabulous women's group that meets in a sheltering cave in a mountain in Second Life. Every Thursday morning the five of us sit in circle and share the deeper levels of what's up for us. In my case last week it was the final stretch of a long preparation perio...

Living fully in the present moment is far more disorienting than advertised. Don’t get me wrong – I feel great. But I have lost my familiar landmarks. When unconstrained by time and space, my boundaries bleed seamlessly into some universal... Continue reading

Hi David,
Loved your comment that I talk about energy work as if it were real -- I do I do I do believe it's real (which can make for entertaining conversations, particularly with my scientific and physician friends!)
Sounds like you have an excellent massage practice and clientele. I know several other massage therapists who share similar approaches -- with exceptionally loyal & enthusiastic clients.
I don't get the resistance, frankly. But then there are so many things about modern life I don't understand.
Thanks for reading & keep in touch.

A writer recently interviewed my niece, Lindsey, for a magazine feature about an inspiring young woman who transformed after a harrowing experience. (Quick recap for the uninitiated, October 2009 Lindsey – barely 20 -- and her boyfriend were robbed, and he was shot and killed as they left their ...

A writer recently interviewed my niece, Lindsey, for a magazine feature about an inspiring young woman who transformed after a harrowing experience. (Quick recap for the uninitiated, October 2009 Lindsey – barely 20 -- and her boyfriend were robbed, and... Continue reading

Congratulations! Unfortunately I'm scheduled elsewhere on April 1 -- can folks access a recording, even if I can't participate? And I'm so looking forward to future Conversations. Thanks so much for leading this initiative!

I'm excited to share the launch of a project that my new company weDialogue has been working on for several months now in collaboration with the World Cafe. You are all warmly invited to participate, and I'm serious about that because it will take all of us... The project is a series of free i...

John's Art Show Friday Night: In a turn of unexpected, divinely-inspired (and less than a week) events, Renee Furman, brand new owner of Boone's Gladiola Girls (as in today is her 2nd day), is proud to be hosting the first... Continue reading

I'm a parent, not a teacher, but recently joined the debate about conflicting merits of external rewards and intrinsic motivation. (As always, complaining about stifling systems, not the fabulous teachers constrained by them.) My daughter, Maddy, attended a Montessori school... Continue reading

I'm hosting a free virtual book club, sponsored by the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare to highlight the keynote speakers at the Council's annual conference in May. We'll be reading President Bill Clinton's Giving, leadership fables by Patrick Lencione and works that blend memoir and advocacy in mental health... Continue reading

I'm hosting a free virtual book club, sponsored by the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare to highlight the keynote speakers at the Council's annual conference in May. We'll be reading President Bill Clinton's Giving, leadership fables by Patrick Lencione... Continue reading

Some very gracious words of support from Dave Parnin, Muskegon County Mental Health (MI) after the February 2011 Middle Management Academy. (Excuse the background noise!! First try with my newest camera). Continue reading

photo: John Lee Just discovered life coach Tara Mohn and loved her suggestion to forget mundane answers to the inevitable "What do you want to do tonight?" and instead shoot the moon. Doesn't have to be something outrageous or unique,... Continue reading

I found this recently and liked it so much I put it on the front page of my Clear Light Communications website. "Inability to accept the mystic experience is more than an intellectual handicap. Lack of awareness of the basic unity of organism and environment is a serious and dangerous hallucin...

Thanks for your comment and I enjoyed looking around your site - very cool work.
I've been hooked on homeopathy since my daughter was a toddler (now she's 18) and this little sugar pill immediately cured an ear infection resistant to 3 previous antibiotics. Even her pediatrician marveled at the results. I've since studied homeopathy and many other energy healing systems. (I have a couple of other related posts under "alternative route" category).
The marketing disaster (great description!)? It's a different paradigm and philosophy; there's no concept or language for energy in Western medicine. Western medicine doesn't incorporate energy systems, anatomy, physiology, pathology, diagnosis, treatment ... it just doesn't fit so it's understandably really hard to incorporate or understand it. Makes it difficult for energy systems to shove into current double-blind study designs, too, since energy treatments are far more individualized, tailored and non-diagnosis driven.
Plus, I find just as some meds don't work with some folks, some energy treatments don't work with some people. My daughter & I have fabulous luck with homeopathy, but some friends have no success at all.
And finally, the thing that makes energy treatments so magnificent is also the thing that turns them into marketing disasters: the right remedy is so subtle, so gentle, so profound that it leaves me without any memory of having the problem in the first place. It's not just that my allergies subsided; it's as if I never had allergies in the first place. Which makes it really easy to forget or dismiss that perhaps it was those little, inconsequential sugar pills that did the trick.

I'm working on it. I'm the type of person who ultimately has no patience for my own neuroses & shit. Admittedly, it takes me awhile to nail down what exactly is going on. But then I go after it with seemingly reckless (but actually pretty equally-neurotic precise) abandon. Today it was Body T...